From the Football Stadium to the Presidential Field

Millions of football fans will be crowding their local bars or joining their friends in front of the television set on Sunday night to watch this year’s Super Bowl game, putting politics briefly out of their mind. Just as fans have been cheering on their favorite teams to make it to this final game of the season, the NFL and its teams have been cheering on their favorite presidential candidates. Republican John McCain is the NFL’s MVP among all candidates, having collected $40,950 from NFL employees, mostly team executives, in 2007. McCain received more from the Dallas Cowboys than any other team. Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton scored the touchdown with $37,000. The New York senator got more from the St. Louis Rams than any other team. In total, the scorecard favors Republicans—GOP candidates collected 74 percent of the total $406,000 that came from the NFL, with the Dallas Cowboys giving the most at $74,000, 94 percent of which went to Republicans.

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney collected more from the Philadelphia Eagles than they did from any other team; Republicans Mike Huckabee from the Baltimore Ravens; Ron Paul from the New Orleans Saints and Rudy Giuliani from the Houston Texans. GOP-leaning teams (including only those that have given a total of more than $10,000) include Houston, the San Diego Chargers, New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers. Employees of the league’s central office gave 65 percent of their $23,300 to Republicans. The teams that supported Democrats include Philadelphia, St. Louis, the Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers. Neither of the teams playing in the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots or the New York Giants, reported making any political donations last year. Maybe they were too focused on their game to pay attention to politics.

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